Dress Uniform 1933 - 1939

The CCC dress uniform for the majority of the program's history was a two-part ensemble: a wool collared shirt and wool service trousers. However, the exact model and cut of these garments evolved over the course of the program.

A NOTE ON "DRESS" VS "FIELD"

I label these garments as the CCC "dress uniform" to distinguish them from the blue denim work fatigues. That said, these "dress" woolens were routinely worn in the field. Whenever temperatures fell, the CCC boys would mix and match the "dress" woolen shirts and trousers in combinations with their denims and wear them on the job site.

MOBILIZATION YEARS: 1933-1934

During initial mobilization of the CCC from April to July 1933, the Army Quartermaster Corps (QMC) faced the challenge of outfitting 250,000 enrollees within a span of weeks. Not only did this number handily exceed the size of the entire regular US Army itself -- about 125,000 men under arms in 1934 -- the pace of enrollment was almost unimaginable. It was the fastest mobilization in U.S. military history, far outstripping the pace of the induction for either of the World Wars.

To clothe this forest army with a basic woolen uniform, the QMC availed itself of every expedient, from issuing World War I surplus trousers and caps to writing emergency contracts for more shirts in Army, Marine Corps, or even civilian patterns. Speed, not consistency, was the order of the day as the CCC swelled toward its maximum enrollment of nearly 500,000 in 1935.

SHIRTS: 1933-1934

PATTERN 1916/17 ENLISTED MAN'S SERVICE SHIRT

The standard CCC dress shirt of the mobilization years was the Pattern 1916/17 service shirt, a heavy wool-cotton flannel pullover with a partial placket ending at the belly.

This style of shirt was first adopted by the Army in 1905 and is ubiquitous in photos of soldiers on the Mexican Punitive Expedition of 1916-17 as well as the doughboys of World War I. Slight modifications to the basic design were adopted before and during WWI in response to field experience and materials shortages until the pattern stabilized on the 1916/1917 wartime model.

Shirts of this basic pattern remained Army standard issue until early 1935, which means that an individual CCC enrollee's shirt could have been made as long ago as 1918 or as recently as the month it was issued.

Despite its antiquated look the CCC boys found this shirt to be a very useful garment. Warm and breathable, with a loose cut for easy arm and torso motion, it made an ideal fall and spring work shirt. Photos of CCC enrollees wearing the wool service shirt with denim trousers for field work in the shoulder season are ubiquitous.

Reproduction Pattern 1916/17 shirt from What Price Glory.

Distinguishing features:

Pullover style with a four button partial-length placket front
Made from 8 ½ ounce or 9 ½ ounce olive drab shirting flannel composed of 80% wool and 20% cotton
Color varies but is usually around Olive Drab #7, an olive green
Rolling Collar
Olive drab or brown buttons
Two breast patch pockets with a straight (not rounded) bottom
Straight rectangular pocket flaps (not notched or scalloped) secured by a single button
After 1917 each pocket has a separate pencil/pen pocket
Elbow patch on each sleeve

WWI Doughboy brothers, ca. 1918. Source: World War I Nerd's post "U.S. Army Shirts 1900 to 1910" on the US Militaria Forum.

Two CCC enrollees in a nearly identical shirt. Undated, but tent in the background strongly suggests 1933 or early 1934; by summer of 1934 nearly all camps had moved out of tents and into wooden barracks. Source: Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives, Gerald W. Williams Collection.

EXPEDIENT SHIRT: US MARINE CORPS PATTERN

When stocks of the standard issue shirt were low, QMC contract officers did what was necessary to get the boys clothed and into the field. Sometimes this meant doing a deal with the devil.

The young enrollee below, from Camp Morton, CCC Company 341, S-104-Pa, in Benton, Pa., is wearing a dress shirt which has a fully-opening placket and two breast pockets with deeply scalloped pocket flaps. Though it matches no known US Army pattern, it is a dead ringer for the contemporary US Marine Corps wool service shirt.

Under ordinary circumstances, the Army would rather have died than be caught issuing a uniform item from their hated rival, the Navy Department's Marine Corps. Well, circumstances alter cases. This photograph suggests that at least for a time in 1933 or 1934 the Quartermaster Corps was so desperate for wool service shirts that it bought Marine Corps patterns for issue to the CCC.

Enrollee in USMS-style service shirt, Camp Morton, CCC Company 341, S-104-Pa, Benton, Pa. Credit: Collection of Charles Libby, reproduced in article "CCC camps helped families overcome economic hardships stemming from the Great Depression" by Cara Morninstar, Williamsport Sun-Gazette, October 16, 2017.

Original USMC wool service shirt for comparison. Source: 44th Collectors Avenue.

EXPEDIENT SHIRT: CIVILIAN WOOL WORK SHIRTS, SERVICE SHIRT STYLE

Throughout the1920s and 1930s civilian clothing manufactures offered work shirts which closely resembled military designs. These civilian shirts followed the general plan of a service shirt, including the felted wool fabric and large breast pockets, but were not stitch for stitch duplicates of any specific military pattern. During the crash mobilization of 1933-34, the Quartermaster Corps seems to have been willing to buy for the CCC any olive drab field shirt in a more or less military style, so long as shirtmakers could manufacture them quickly.

Below is an example of one such shirt: a grey civilian wool field shirt of 1920s or 1930s vintage from an unknown manufacturer. The overall plan resembles the Pattern 1916/17 military service shirt. However, several features show it is not made exactly to the military pattern: the partial placket extends further down the front than a real QMC contract shirt, the point of the placket end is more acute, and the collar includes the chin strap popular in civilian dress shirts and chambray work shirts. The pockets are 1/2" wider that the 1917 spec, a full 6" rather than 5.5", lack the pencil pocket stitch, and are single rather the double stitched around the edge. The sleeve cuff plackets extends up to and under the oval elbow patch rather than terminating short of it.

Despite such variations in detail from the true QMC specification, such a shirt (albeit in olive drab or khaki) would have been more than acceptable for CCC issue in 1933 or 1934.

Two images, civilian work shirt loosely patterned on M1916/7 service shirt. Note deeper partial placket with sharper terminal point, wider patch pockets affixed with a single stich, chin strap, and sleeve placket extending up and under the larger elbow reeforcement patch. Despite these differences from the true military pattern, a shirt like this in olive drab or khaki would have been entirely acceptable for CCC issue in 1933 or 1934. Credit: collection of the author.

Images of civilian wool work shirts on the backs of CCC enrollees in 1933 and 1934 abound. Below we see another two other boys from Camp Morton, CCC Company 341, S-104-Pa. The boy on the left wears a shirt with a partial placket similar to the M1916/17 pullover, but also the signature beveled pocket flaps of the new "Pattern 1933" 8-26C coat-style shirt to be discussed below. His mate on the right wears a shirt with the opposite combination: square pocket flaps but a fully-opening placket.

Enrollees in non-standard service-style shirts, Camp Morton, CCC Company 341, S-104-Pa, Benton, Pa. Credit: Collection of Charles Libby, reproduced in article "CCC camps helped families overcome economic hardships stemming from the Great Depression" by Cara Morninstar, Williamsport Sun-Gazette, October 16, 2017.

In the next image, from Camp Haskell in Binger, OK in February 1934, we see two enrollees, left and center, in wool pullover shirts with V-shaped rather than square pocket flaps. The partial plackets terminate in a square rather than triangular reenforced area.

Enrollees at Camp Haskell in Binger, OK wearing non-standard wool work shirts with v-shaped pocket flaps and square-end partial plackets, February 1934. Source: Oklahoma Historical Society.

TROUSERS AND BREECHES: 1933-1934

The CCC dress pant was an olive-drab, straight-leg trouser made of heavy, field-grade wool.

Though the QMC had adopted a modern wool trouser specification in 1930, soldiers preferred flared breeches which were thought to convey a more military appearance. The only troops for whom pants rather than breeches were standard issue in 1933 were officer cadets in ROTC at civilian colleges. With few of the ROTC-pattern trousers in stock, the Quartermaster faced a dire challenging in outfitting 250,000 CCC boys in wool pants by midsummer of 1933.

Salvation came in the form of a trove of World War I-surplus field trousers. For all of 1933 and into 1934, the Quartermaster Corps uniformed the CCC almost entirely from this cache of fifteen year old deadstock.

Soldiers in breeches training for World War I; Fort Myer Training Camp, 1917. Source: Harris & Ewing via old-pcture.com.

BACKGROUNDER -- ARMY BREECHES

The standard military pant from World War I until 1938 was wool breeches (pronounced britches by the troops), not trousers. Breeches or jodphurs are a cavalry-styled pant with a dramatic flair at the hips narrowing below the knee to a trim leg ending in a laced cinch at the lower calf.

Breeches were developed for horseback riding in the nineteenth century. The wide cut at the hips allowed a rider to flex the torso in any direction from a crouched or seated position. By the Great War the style had spread to dismounted troops as well. Foot soldiers' breeches originally could be distinguished by a somewhat more trim cut through the hips; by the end of the Great War, however, the Army was issuing a single pattern to both mounted and dismounted troops.

The Regular Army remained devoted to breeches well into the 1930s, and would not finally retire them until the sweeping 1937 uniform revisions.

Equipping the CCC with trousers not breeches was likely intended to emphasize the 3C's civilian character. It was not a hard and fast rule--breeches were specifically listed as a permitted alternate issue for the CCC when trousers were not available. However, period images make it clear that trousers were overwhelmingly preferred for the Conservation men.

"PATTERN 1918" WORLD WAR I FIELD TROUSER

Pattern 918 WWI wool trousers on a CCC enrollee, Camp Morton, CCC Company 341, S-104-Pa, Benton, Pa. Source: Collection of Charles Libby, reproduced in Williamsport Sun-Gazette, October 16, 2017.

Same image, detail of front pocket.

Original Pattern 1918 trousers, side view. Source: World War I Nerd's post in the topic "Were Puttees Worn With Trousers?" in the US Militaria Forum.

CCC enrollees in Mendora, ND. Note unmistakable dart-shaped insert to convert pants to bell bottoms. Source: State Historical Society of North Dakota.

The deadstock Pattern 1918 wool trousers that saved the Quartermaster Corps in 1933 were an emergency solution to a World War I production crisis. With their complex shape and stitching, military breeches did not lend themselves to mass production. As the pace of US mobilization accelerated, a shortage of breeches threatened to become a bottleneck in equipping the millions of American troops forming up in stateside training camps for deployment to France. The solution was to switch to a simplified trouser design with fewer fabric panels and less complex stitching patterns.

Designed for winter trench warfare, the M1918 trouser was a heavyweight field pant. The fabric was the same heavy 16 oz. Melton cloth used to make the World War I service coat. The color was olive drab, which in 1918 meant a greenish-brown hue. Notable features include:

Diagonal slash hanging pockets on the front, the upper end of which stops just short of a belt loop
A vertical line of overlapped fabric with seam stitching carried from the upper corner of the front pocket up across the waist
Horizontal slash rear hanging pockets
A horizontal slit hanging watch pocket.
A four or five button fly (five buttons for size 36 and larger). The buttons are stamped "US Army"and made of zinc, similar to the zinc buttons often used on fatigue denims.
A straight "peg leg" intended to be wrapped in puttees or covered by canvas leggings in the same manner as were breeches.

In a footnote buried in her QMC Historical Series No. 16, Erna Risch notes a striking line item in the 1919 inventory report of the Quartermaster General:

"In this statement are listed 7,196,885 wool trousers, actual deliveries of which did not begin until June 3, 1918. It would seem unlikely that any trousers reached the enlisted man in Europe before the end of the war."

After the November 1918 Armistice, the Regular Army turned up its nose at these rough woolen trousers. Unissued and unwanted, the Pattern 1918 trousers languished in Quartermaster Depot warehouses until the QMC turned them over to the CCC in 1933 and 1934.

The CCC boys loathed the fit of the Pattern 1918s and complained of them vociferously. The tight fit of the seat and the straight trouser leg below the knee seemed to be a particular sticking point. Illinois CCC historian Kay Rippelmeyer notes that

"Clifford Johnson remembered the early years at Camp Hicks and the old army-issue khaki* pants. The boys called them 'blanket pants' because the would cut off six inch wide strips (from somebody else's blanket) and take them home to their mothers to sew on the bottom hems of the pant legs to make 'bell bottoms.'" *Note--the pants were olive drab not khaki; civilian historians often confuse the two terms.

Utah journalist Helen Garder recorded a similar account:

"Blanche Fowler of St. George remembers one seemingly insignificant quirk of fate that changed some local history and the economy during the CCC years. It was the issuing of outdated World War I army uniforms to the men in the CCC. These were the cause of many of the young men becoming acquainted with the families and young ladies around the camps. The men heartily disliked the peg-legged wool army pants issued to them as part of their uniform. Someone figured that if a triangle of material was inserted at the bottom of each pant leg, it made the army-issue trousers look more like the fashionable sailor's bell bottoms. Soon, thriving cottage industry was going on in many of the small towns where the camps were located. The charge for the insert was a quarter for each pair of pants. During the 1930s, twenty-five cents was almost a day's wage."

Detail of the same original pair of Pattern 1918s as at left -- note the distinctive overlapped fabric with vertical stitching extending from the front pocket top corner to the waistline, and compare to the detail view of the CCC trouser pocket above left.

ALTERNATE ISSUE: ENLISTED MAN'S DISMOUNTED BREECHES

"PATTERN 1917" WW1 FIELD BREECHES, SPECIFICATION 1263 OR 1286

BREECHES, WOOL, 18OZ OD, QMC SPECIFICATION 8-30A ADOPTED 1933

Enrollees at Camp S-51, Groton State Forest, Massachusetts, December 1935. The boy in the center appears to be wearing breeches; the glint of a zinc button suggests that these are Pattern 1917 WW1 deadstock. Source: "A Legacy of Forests and Parks: The Civilian Conservation Corps" at Northernwoodlands.com.

Enrollee R. H. “Hap” Radloff (l) and an unidentified friend (r), Camp 1754, McGregor, Iowa ca. 1935. The friend is certainly wearing breeches; Radloff may be wearing breeches with a modest hip flare or may simply be blousing trousers into his boots. The friend must have hated having wet feet--he is also wearing a pair of unbuckled arctic overshoes over the top of a pair of shoepacs. Source: Radloff collection at Iowa GenWeb.

While the Army preferred to issue trousers to the CCC, enrollees were occasionally issued wool breeches. Indeed, the War Department regulations for the administration of CCC camps continue to list breeches as an alternate issue to trousers as late as 1937.

Period images suggest that breeches were issued in mobilization camps fairly commonly, but swiftly replaced by trousers once the boys arrived in their field camps.

Boys who received breeches heartily disliked them. Enrollee Henry E. Beck of Durand, Wisconsin, who joined up in October 1935, recalled

"Olive Drab (O.D.) shirts and pants of solid wool were, like the rest, of WWI issue. The shirts fit well but the pants with very narrow bottoms were something else."

For now, I can offer little more than speculation as to the exact models of breeches issued to the CCC. Period images rarely show enough detail to distinguish specific patterns, and I have yet to see a pair of breeches with an ECW or ECF contract tag. As alternate issue, CCC breeches may have been drawn from Army contract stocks as an expedient when supplies of ECW-contract trousers were low.

Until better evidence turns up, it seems likely that in the mobilization years breeches would have been drawn from the large overhang of Pattern 1917 deadstock. These wartime breeches were made in a coarse grade of wool and tended to dark shades, though actual color in surviving examples varies greatly. They were closed by zinc buttons at the fly, with the top button visible. The knee area was minimally reinforced with a simple doubled area of fabric. They had back pockets but no back buckle, and diagonal slash front pockets ending near a belt loop that are almost exactly the same as the front pockets on the Pattern 1918 field trouser. The legs cinched at the side of the calf with 8 or 9 pairs of eyelets.

Once the WWI deadstock was exhausted, it seems likely that issue switched to contemporary US Army enlisted patterns, most likely Specification 8-30A adopted in 1933. While the overall profile and front pocket style remained much the same as their Great War predecessors, Pattern 8-30A breeches were made of a finer grade 18 oz. OD wool, had a fly closed with plastic rather than zinc buttons, and cinched at the side of the calf with up to 13 pairs of small eyelets. The ankle and inside of the thigh were sturdily padded with fabric quilted in a distinctive chevron pattern.

Excluding the mobilization year of 1933, the majority of images of breeches in the field are from cold climate camps. This may have been because breeches bloused more easily than trousers into arctic overshoes or shoepacs for wintertime field wear. By regulation, enrollees turned their uniform parts in to the camp supply office at the end of their six-month term of enrollment; camp supply officers in cold weather camps may have specifically retained breeches in local stock for reissue to subsequent enrollees in winter.

Two images, replica Pattern 1917 WW1 field breeches from Man the Line; likely originally stock from Paul Schipper of Schipperfabrik, a noted WW1 replicator. Replica shows the zinc buttons, simple double-fabric thigh panel, and 8 or so pairs of calf eyelets typical of the WW1 era breeches likely issued to the CCC in 1933-34. Source: Man the Line.

Left image, original breeches in collection of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said to have been from a CCC camp in Texas. These seem to have a combination of features of the 1917 and 1933 patterns. Quilted thigh padding, larger number of small eyelets at the calf, and fabric finish tape at the cuff reflect Specification 8-30, but the pants still have zinc rather than plastic buttons and the wool appears more similar to WW1-era fabric than then 18oz. OD. Possibly 1920s production prior to adoption of Specification 8-30A. Source: Texas Parks and Wildlife.

PEAK YEARS: 1935-1939

In late 1935 the Civilian Conservation Corps reached the largest size it would ever attain. By the end of that year there were over 2,650 camps operating in all 48 states plus the territories of Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico. 505,782 enrollees occupied these camps, with other categories, such as officers, supervisors, education advisors and administrators swelling the total to more than 600,000 persons. From this peak President Roosevelt directed a gradual draw down, ordering Director Fechner to reduce enrollment to 300,000 by 1938.

Stabilization of the CCC's enrollment during 1935 allowed the Quartermaster Corps to bring order and routine to outfitting the Corps. World War I surplus and emergency expedient garments were phased out. By 1936, CCC enrollees were consistently outfitted in new-made shirts and trousers manufactured to current US Army patterns.

SHIRTS: 1935-1939

SHIRT: WOOL, OD, ENLISTED MAN'S, QM SPECIFICATION 8-26C DATED 4 OCTOBER 1933

8-26C shirt on an Assistant Leader at at Camp Crawford, Elizabeth, Wirt County, W. Va. Source: Evans Collection, West Virginia and Regional History Center, IDNO: 017887.

In October 1933 the Quartermaster Corps belatedly finalized a specification for a new service shirt to replace the venerable WWI wool pullover shirt. The new garment would be coat-styled, which is Quartermaster-speak for fully opening in the front. Generally known as Pattern 1933, the new shirt became standard issue for the Army around the winter of 1934/1935. It seems to have been phased in simultaneously as the standard service shirt for the CCC.

Given its prominent place in CCC footlockers, the Pattern 1933 shirt is worth exploring in some detail. World War II clothing historian Charles Lemons provides an excellent description of its features in his book Uniforms of the US Army Ground Forces 1939-1945, Volume 3, Shirts:

"Shirt, Wool, Enlisted Man's

USA Specification 8-26C

Pattern Date: 4 October 1933

This shirt is constructed of a heavy, olive drab wool with two breast pockets and long sleeves. Both pockets have beveled pocket flaps... . The breast pockets are quite wide (7") compared to the later patterns of enlisted men's wool shirts, which are 6" wide. In addition, each of the pockets is equipped with a 3 1/2 inch wide pencil pocket set towards the centerline of the shirt. The front of the shirt closes with seven brown plastic buttons, and the cuffs are each closed with a single button. The buttonholes are reinforced by 1 1/4" wide decorative facing sewn down the front of the shirt and along each cuff opening. ... On each of the elbows is an added oblong wool patch for reinforcement."

Original Specification 8-26C CCC dress shirt. Clockwise from top left: overall view; detail of oblong elbow to cuff reinforcement; QM tag with contract number W669-ECF-515 dated 1-16-35, detail of pocket with beveled flap edges, detail of collar showing double stitching. Source: collection of the author.

SHIRT: OD, ENLISTED MEN'S, QM SPECIFICATION 8-108

SHIRT, WOOL, OD, QM SPECIFICATION 8-108 DATED 2 AUGUST 1937

SHIRT, FLANNEL, OD, QM SPECIFICATION 8-108 AMENDMENT 1 DATED 6 OCTOBER 1938

"Pattern 1937" shirt on a Section Leader, Camp Charleston, Coles County, Illinois, 1940. Source: Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site's CCC Flickr page.

Essentially an update to the 1933 pattern, the Pattern 1937 service shirt, Specification 8-108, was visually very similar. It retained the signature double breast pockets with beveled pocket flaps, though the pockets became one inch smaller -- 6" wide rather than 7" -- and lost their internal pencil divider. The 1937 shirt also deleted the sleeve reenforcing patch and simplified the collar and pocket stitching. Fabric could be felted wool as in the Pattern 1933 version (Specification 8-108), or a new, lighter worsted wool which had a somewhat ridged appearance on close inspection (Specification 8-108 Amendment 1).

A nearly identical shirt in mid-weight khaki cotton fabric was released for tropical use in 1936. The cotton khaki shirt seems to have been issued as a summer dress shirt to CCC camps in hot climates from 1936 onward; this "suntan" shirt is discussed in a separate section.

These shirts became standard issue for the CCC simultaneous with their adoption as US Army standard issue around 1938-39.

Four views of an original Pattern 1937 Olive Drab wool shirt. Clockwise from upper left: overall view, detail of collar with single stitch hem, 6" wide pocket without pencil pocket stitching, and lack of elbow reenforcing patch. Source: Uniforms of the US Army Ground Forces 1939-1945, Volume 3, Shirts, by Charles Lemons, pages 15-19.

TROUSERS: 1934-1939

TROUSERS: ENLISTED MEN'S, SERVICE, OLIVE DRAB, QM SPECIFICATION 8-83A DATED 27 MARCH 1933

CCC SPECIFIC VARIANT OD-33 / 20 OZ. MELTON WOOL, QM TENTATIVE SPECIFICATION DATED 19 JANUARY 1934

8-83 trousers on a CCC enrollee, Camp Morton, CCC Company 341, S-104-Pa, Benton, Pa. Source: Collection of Charles Libby, reproduced in Williamsport Sun-Gazette, October 16, 2017.

The Army Quartermaster Corps long remembered the field forces' disdain for the Pattern 1918 wool trousers, which resulted in several million pairs of wartime trousers languishing in stockrooms. Not until a decade passed did the Quartermaster Corps take a second crack at designing a wool service trouser. The result was Pattern 8-83, approved on April 7, 1930. The design was modeled on civilian suit trousers of the time and featured a high waist, close fitting seat, and fuller legs.

In 1933 the design was slightly modified (Specification 8-83A). It is worth noting again that even this new design found little favor with the Regular Army, which still preferred breeches. Accordingly, the only troops for whom the 8-83 trousers were standard issue were cadets in ROTC at civilian colleges.

On 19 January 1934 and again on 14 May 1934 the QMC issued tentative specifications for a variation on the 8-83A pattern to be made in heavy, almost coat-grade 20 oz. melton wool. This heavyweight version of the 8-83 was to be procured in quantity for issue to the CCC. These 20-oz. Melton wool variants on the 8-83 design are the archetypical CCC dress pants of the peak years of the Corps: a heavyweight, CCC-only trouser intended to serve as a wintertime field work pant as well as a dress pant.

Notable features of the CCC-specific 8-83As include a dark, almost chocolate brown color, Olive Drab 33 in the Quartermaster dye chart--a notable contrast to the greenish-brown OD shade of the old M1918s. The new pants had vertical slash hanging pockets with the entrance on the side hemline, two rear hanging pockets without flaps, and a slit hanging watch pocket below the belt line. The button fly was closed with five buttons, with the waist button exposed and the rest hidden. Buttons for the 20-oz. CCC-issue version were brown plastic.

Three views of the 8-83A service trouser in the dark, OD-33 shade used by the CCC. Note vertical entrance of front pockets on the side hemline, simple hanging rear pockets without flaps or buttons, and trim cut of the seat. Source: Private collection of Christopher Reuscher, from page "Trousers, Enlisted Men's, Service, Olive Drab, Specification QMC 8-83 Dated 7 April 1930" in website United States Military Uniforms of World War II by Christopher Reuscher.

ACCESSORIES

HEADGEAR

CAMPAIGN HAT

WWI Doughboy brothers wearing Campaign Hats, ca. 1918. Source: World War I Nerd's "U.S. Army Shirts 1900 to 1910" on the US Militaria Forum.

The Campaign Hat (aka the "Park Ranger hat" or "Smokey Bear") was a cherished icon of the Regular Army. Though it appears frequently in CCC images, the campaign hat is invariably the headgear of a supervisory figure, either an Army camp commandant or a civilian project manager from the US Forest Service or National Park Service. There are many "clowing around" pictures of CCC boys playing dress-up in a borrowed supervisor's Campaign Hat, but do not be mislead--at no time were rank-and-file CCC enrollees issued campaign hats as part of their own kit.

Army command staff of CCC camp P-63, Company 1431, in Bronson, Florida, 1933. Source: Florida State Library and Archives.

OVERSEAS CAP, PATTERN 1918

African-American troops on the way to France at dockside in an English transition port; all wear the 1918 Overseas Cap. Source: detail taken from New York Times archive photo.

CCC enrollees in 1935 sporting the same cap. Credit: CCC District E Annual, Company 3489, Crosby, Mississippi, 1935, Source: KCET.

When the Army deployed to France in 1917 it took with it with the beloved Campaign Hat. However, the doughboys soon learned that their iconic headgear was completely unsuitable for trench warfare. Steel helmets were a necessity for survival in the trenches; where and how to store an entire platoon or company's stiff-brimmed campaign hats when the boys donned helmets to move up to the front was an insuperable problem.

The solution was to adopt the soft, low-profile, fore-and-aft wool "trench cap" in use by our allies. Such caps could be folded and tucked into a pocket when helmets had to be donned. Initially US doughboys wore a bewildering variety of French- and British- made caps. By mid-1918 a standardized US-designed olive drab wool cap was becoming widely available--examples of which are sported by the African-American doughboys in England shown at left. The US-made caps came in a variety of profiles, but most featured an asymmetrical crown and side flap which were lower at the front of the cap than at the rear.

Immediately after the armistice the Army reverted right back to its beloved Campaign Hat. However, the Pattern 1918 "Overseas Cap" remained in the US Army inventory throughout the interwar years as an optional item. In a strange back-formation, it became known stateside as a "Garrison Cap," as it tended be worn on post, while the Campaign Hat still ruled in the field.

The ready availability of the Pattern 1918-style overseas cap made it a natural choice for the CCC dress uniform. A cap was issued without fail to every CCC enrollee as part of his initial outfit. Many of these caps were actual WW1-era deadstock, but by 1935 others were of new manufacture in a similar style.

In practice, the CCC boys' caps seem to have spent most of their lives in footlockers, coming out only for formal group portraits and Saturday night dances in nearby towns.

Original CCC overseas cap, right and left sides. The cap was issued plain; the patch and pin are private purchase items available from the camp commisary or any number of mail-order catalogs. Source: collection of Garth Thompson, posted to topic "Civilian Conservation Corps" in US Militaria Forum.

NECKWEAR

1918 "PERSHING" TIE

Prior to 1926 a necktie was not a standard part of the US Army enlisted man's uniform. Before that year, the service uniform included a coat with a stiff, standing "choker" collar. As the coat was to be worn on all occasions when a tie would be appropriate, and the high collar of the coat would have completely concealed a tie had one been worn, it followed that none was actually needed.

The only exception to this rule came during the vast wartime expansion of the Army staff during World War I. At every level of command, from divisions up through corps and armies, enlisted men were assigned to headquarters staffs as clerks and orderlies. These were desk-bound jobs, and the men wore shirtsleeves for the indoor work. General John "Black Jack" Pershing, the Allied Expeditionary Force high commander, was a stickler for a sharp military appearance. He found the sight of all these military shirts without a tie a loathsome deviation from good order and discipline. Ties were demanded for the staff enlisted men, and the Quartermaster Corps obliged with an emergency order of black cravats in a simple rough silk.

Army tradition of the day dictated that the tie be tucked into the shirt placket between the first and second button, not worn loose. Rather than waste precious silk fabric on a tie end that, by regulation, was never supposed to be seen, the Quartermaster Corps cut the tie off short and square.

These ties, called Pershings after their progenitor, were manufactured in large numbers for the vast American army that was to have taken the field in 1919. However, they were never a part of the standard enlisted uniform outside the war zone, and most of the production was never issued. They remained in Quartermaster Depots until called forth to provided a ready dress tie for the CCC in the mobilization years of 1933-34.

Our WWI Doughboy brothers, again, now modelling for us the Pershing Tie.

The same tie on the CCC boys of Camp Morton. The slight horizontal crinkle in the tie fabric is a sure sign of the Pershing, even if its distinctive square end is tucked properly out of sight.

NECKTIE, SILK, BLACK, PATTERN 1926 and PATTERN 1936, SPECIFICATION 7-1D

NECKTIE, WORSTED WOOL, BLACK, SPECIFICATION 8-119

As noted above, in 1926 the Army modified the design of the standard service coat. The new design included a falling collar and notched lapels in the same manner as a conventional civilian business suit. As the collar of the shirt was now exposed, the Quartermaster Corps specified that a tie would now be part of the enlisted service uniform. As updated in a specification of 1936, the enlisted man's tie was a narrow black silk cravat, 49 1/2" to 50" long, 3 1/2 " wide at the widest end, 1" at the neck, and 2 3/8" at the narrower end.

As soon as supplies of the Pershing were exhausted, the US Army black silk enlisted tie became standard issue for the CCC as well.

With the approach of World War II, silk became a strategic material for manufacturing parachutes. To conserve silk the Quartermaster Corps switched the tie material to worsted wool in 1940. Dimensions remained the same. CCC issue ties likely switched to wool at the same time.

Camp Charleston, Illinois Leaders and Assistant Leaders in dress uniform with standard black service tie, 1940. Source: Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site's CCC Flickr page.

BELT

BELT, WAIST, WEB, COTTON, OD, OLD TYPE

BELT, WAIST, WEB, COTTON, OD, QMC SPECIFICATION 6-105 DATED 1937

CCC enrollees throughout the entire life of the program were issued a single belt for both work and dress wear: a standard US Army web belt. From 1933 to 1937, the web belt was the "old type" with 1" wide webbing, a venerable design dating back to 1910. With the adoption of Specification 6-105 in 1937, the webbing became 1 and 1/4" wide.

Though often called "khaki," the webbing color was actually OD-3, a very light olive drab green shade. Light OD shades were notoriously susceptible to die variations between and within runs, and also faded with bleaching or washing, so the actual color could range from khaki to dark tan, albeit usually with a greenish tint.

Most belts were manufactured in-house by the US Army Quartermaster Corps at Jeffersonville Quartermaster Depot in Indiana; these are marked on the inside of the webbing with the letters JQMD, a year of manufacture, and a size in inches. The actual wearable size was usually at least 2" smaller than the stamped size, so a stamped 36" belt corresponded to a 34" or 33" trouser waist size.

The belt was issued with two buckles. Army enlisted men were issued an open-faced, blackened metal locking buckle. Officers were issued a solid-faced, brass, sliding friction lock buckle identical to those still in use on military and boy scouting belts. Interestingly, the officers' and enlisted buckles were issued randomly to CCC enrollees. Historical images suggest that the officers' style may in fact have been slightly more common in CCC camps.

It should also be noted that CCC enrollees routinely wore their personal belts during the workday. Many enrollees seem to have strongly preferred a sturdy leather belt to the issued web belt, perhaps because it was far less likely to roll when bending. This practice of wearing personal belts seems to have been universally tolerated, and private belts make up between a third and half of the belts in any group image of a CCC work party. It also seems to have been a fad or fashion to wear one's personal belt with the buckle offset rakishly a loop or so from center.

Enrollee wearing the standard web belt in a fairly dark shade with the enlisted-style, open frame blackened brass buckle. Date and location unknown.

The Camp Charleston leaders are wearing light shade web belts with the officers' style solid-face brass buckle. Source: Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site's CCC Flickr page.

1933-1939 DRESS UNIFORM IMAGE GALLERY

The boys of Camp Morton, CCC Company 341, S-104-Pa, Benton, Pa. This is a Rosetta Stone image for mobilization-era CCC dress uniform parts. In this image you can find 1918 WWI wool trousers next to brand-new 1930s-era 8-83As, and Pattern 1916-17 wool pullovers next to Marine Corps pattern dress shirts. Some shirts have a bizarre combination of features: 1930s-style notched pocket flaps with a 1917-style partial-front placket, or vice versa. Neither combination conforms to any known QMC standard. Source: Collection of Charles Libby, reproduced in Williamsport Sun-Gazette, October 16, 2017.

New enrollee John Boling from Ohio is wearing breeches and canvas leggings with what appears to be the Pattern 1916/17 shirt. Camp Lee, Company 532, SP-6, Clifftop West Virginia, ca. 1935. Source: West Virginia CCC Legacy.

Mockingly labelled "A Rookie" this image seems to show an over-eager new enrollee still wearing the canvas leggings issued in his conditioning camp. He is wearing the 8-26C coat-style shirt, likely with WWI field trousers or field breeches. Bizarrely, he has topped off his dress uniform with a denim Daisy Mae. Camp Cranberry, Cowen, West Virginia. Source: West Virginia & Regional History Center ID No. 047803.

More breeches and leggings, this time worn by Arnold Benson of Camp Hill City, Newton Lake, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, 1935. Benson is "playing soldier" with a borrowed officer or civilian's rifle. This image would have given CCC Director Fechner a heart attack--the CCC was emphatically a civilian program, and training the boys in the manual of arms with military weapons was strictly prohibited. Source: Arnold Benson Collection, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Museum of South Dakota.

A nice example of Pattern 1916/17 pullover wool shirts mixed in among denim jumpers for work wear. CCC crew in Yellowstone National Park, 1930s. Source: Wyoming State Archives via article "Hard Times and Conservation: the CCC in Wyoming" in wyohistory.org.

More Pattern 1916/17 pullovers as work wear. The boy third from left has his wool shirt untucked, showing the deep, thigh length front and rear shirttails of the WWI pullover. CCC crew poses at Mount Rainier National Park, 1933-1935. Source: National Park Service photograph by Matt N. Dodge: Negative Number 86-102.

Detail from a 1934 image of boys at the Fort Knox induction camp. Most of these leggings will be tossed in a footlocker and never worn again once these boys arrive at their permanent companies. The shirts seem to be mostly Pattern 1916/17 pullovers with square pocket flaps, but some, like those on the boys furthest right end of the first and second rows, seem to show the beveled pocket flaps of the coat-style 8-26Cs. The odd hybid shirts with Pattern 1916-style partial plackets but 1930s style beveled pocket flaps may also be in the mix. Source: post "Raising and Deploying a Conservation Army" in the Forest Army blog.

Looking cool in the new 8-26Cs with the beveled pocket flaps and fully-opening coat-style placket. A group of young CCC enrollees at Chittenden Nursery in Manistee National Forest, 1935. Source: Forest History Society Photograph Collection, R9_MAN1935CCC_Chitt_1352.

Enrollees pose in the education building at a camp outside Huntsville, Alabama, nicely turned out in 8-26C coat-style shirts. Some of the trousers look like they may have received the unauthorized bell bottom modification. Source: U.S. Forest Service via The Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Pattern 1916/17 pullovers worn as work shirts with denim trousers and Daisy Maes. The vintage colorization in this photograph is dead on accurate. Work crew of CCC Company 288 in the 1930s at Fort Hancock, New Jersey. Source: NPS Fort Hancock website.

Wearing the late thirties standard 8-108 shirt and 8-83-style trousers with sullen expression. Camp Deer Lake, Company 1722, Itasca County, Minnesota, 1938. Source: Norman Gustafson Civilian Conservation Corps photographic collection 2002.4017.11, Iron Range Research Center.

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